I have talked about meal planning before and never really stuck to it but now that we are on a tighter budget, I plan to be more serious about it. I asked people and researched and Pinterested about how to lower a grocery bill. Everyone and everything I read had one thing in common: that meal planning is the way to go. We have reduced all of our expenses as best as we can and the only two things that are really what we can control now are our fuel usage and grocery spending.
In the past, I usually had an idea in mind for what we were going to eat, but making a written plan of meals is going to make things a little easier. And apparently it is going to help my grocery bill so we will see! At the very least, it will make me feel like I’m being more productive.
I kind of did some planning in the last couple of weeks of September and strictly used my debit card for all my grocery purchases. I use the Mint app and consult it often to see how my spending is going. So by using my debit card I was able to see about how much I spent on groceries last month. From that information, I was able to set my budget for groceries at $350.00. I feel like that is a pretty strict budget for what we are used to doing but I am serious about this!
My meal plan for the week of 10/9 – 10/15
Sunday: Jambalaya
Macaroni & Cheese
Monday: Spaghetti
Brown Sugar Green Beans
Tuesday: Chicken Spaghetti
Sweet Potato Strips
Wednesday: Chicken Spaghetti Leftovers
Vegetable Leftovers
Thursday: Shrimp Dinner at Methodist Church
Friday: Hamburgers
Vegetable Leftovers
Saturday: Leftovers
Since I am a beginner, I’m starting with just dinner right now. Also, I do have room in there for a changeup such as going to eat with either of our parents. Kevin eats the same thing for breakfast every morning so I pretty much just have to make sure there is enough pop tarts for him to eat. Finley and I eat a variation of oatmeal, pancakes, or eggs for breakfast. It depends on my mood. Lucky for me, he loves all food pretty much!
Well, we will see how this whole thing goes! I’ll check back later with my progress.